Rotary forming, sealing, and cutting apparatus for containers



' Nov. 20, 1956 P. H. CLARK 2,770,936

ROTARY FORMING, SEALING AND CUTTING APPARATUS FOR CONTAINERS Filed Feb.9, 1951 INVENTOR. PETER H, CLARK flffOPA/EV United States Patent ROTARYFORMING, SEALING, AND CUTTING APPARATUS FOR CONTAINERS Peter H. Clark,Worcester, Mass. Application February 9, 1951, Serial No. 210,142 1Claim. (Cl. 53-180) This invention relates to a new'and improvedforming, sealing, and cutting, slitting or perforating apparatus or toolprincipally for use in the high speed manufacture of containers, etc.,both during filling and in the absence of filling.

The principal object of the present invention resides in the provisionof a device as above stated which comprises a body having a plurality ofdetachable and replaceable members which lend thereto the capacity toform a great many different sizes and shapes of bags, envelopes, etc.

Another object of the invention resides in the provision of a rotaryforming tool comprising a body which is comparable to a spider and has acentral arbor or shaft, the spider being provided with oneor more armsextending radially thereof and terminating in end surfaces to which maybe applied a great variety of sealing, crimping, cutting, perforating orslitting members; the provision of a device as described includingreplaceable forming or shaping members disposed between the arms of thespider above stated, said forming members being made in any shaperequired to perform the particular operation at hand and includingmembers which have operating surfaces on arcs of circles, steppedsurfaces for partial formation between the arms and partial expressionof air or gas from the bag or envelope being made, and various shapes ofconcave surfaces, all of which, however, are generally adapted tocooperate with similar or complementary devices on a like forming deviceso that the same operate in pairs to form the bags or envelopes etc.,shape them as desired, crimp and seal the same, and sever, perforate, orslit the container relative to the material being formed.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is aview in end elevation of one form of the invention;

Fig. 2 shows a modification including the forming members in section;

Fig. 3 shows a four-armed device in perspective;

Fig. 4 is an end elevation of the device of Fig. 3 on an enlarged scalewith different kinds of working members secured thereto;

Fig. 5 is similar to Fig. 4 but shows various forming members applied;and

Fig. 6 is an elevational view of one of the forming members looking inthe direction of arrow 6 in Fig. 5.

It has been customary in the past in the container making and fillingart to make single solid forming and sealing members according to thearticle to be packaged. This results in the necessity for the completeformation of a separate and new mandrel or tool, each time it is desiredto package a different item or an article having a different shape orsize. This invention provides a single device which may be varied andchanged so as to accommodate a great many different conditions merely bythe removal of and reapplication thereto of different members to bedescribed.

Referring first to Fig. 5 it is to be understood that the main body 10is elongated and adapted to rotate on a shaft or arbor 12 and has aplurality of arms 14, 16, 18 and 20 each provided with working elementsgenerally indicated at 22, 24, 26 and 28. The character 28 actuallyindicates a non-working element, it being noted that it is flat andmerely forms a platform. This platform might form a pressing medium fora cutoff knife or the like, however, making element 28 a workingelement'in some cases. However, the elements 22, 24 and 26 are formed onthe arcs of a circle having a center at the shaft axis, and theseelements are sealing or crimping members which in cooperation withsimilar working members or other like tools form cross seals onadvancing strips of material to form the same into a plurality ofcontainers which'may be cut off as desired.

The device shown in Fig. 1 has-a single arm at 30 and this single arm asshown has a flat face 32 on which may be mounted by means, preferably ofAllen head screws, in threaded holes 34 any one of a plurality ofoperating members which may be crimpers, sealers, etc., and which mayormay not be provided with a knife 36, centrally thereof for slitting,perforating, or severing. The knife 36 may be held by a screw in athreaded hole 38.

Reference is now made to Fig. 2. It will be seen that the'tool or device40 therein shown is provided with two arms 42 which are just alike anddetachably receive the same members as described above as to Figs.'1 and5. In addition however, forming members 44, 46 are provided and thesemembers are detachably secured as by screws at 48 to the body of thespider or tool member 40, between the arms 42.

The member 44 is formed on a double are providing a recess at point orline 50 forming a receptacle as the tool rotates to receive articles tobe packaged but to press the covering strips inwardly at the points 52';Both of the members 44 and 46 shape the advancing strip material beforethe package is closed, the member 46 having a step-down portion 53receiving the article and advancing cover material, while the portion 54thereof is used to flatten the remainer of the package before the memberat 56 seals the top thereof, and a knife 58 if present cuts off thefilled and finished package.

In succession, the crimping member at 60 forms the bottom of the packagewhich is to be formed by member 44 as described, and the member at 62forms the top cross seal finishing the package. However, in this casethere is no knife in the slot 64 and therefore the finished package isnot severed, assuming the device is rotating in a counterclockwisedirection. However, a severing, slitting or perforating knife may beused or not as circumstances require.

In Fig. 3 there is shown the same body or spider 10 as is shown in Figs.4 and 5 but with no detachable members secured thereto but showing theradial arms, fiat attaching faces 32, and the knife slots 66 in eacharm.

Fig. 4 shows the same spider or tool member as shown in Fig. 3 but inthis case there is shown a bare knife at 68 which severs withoutcrimping or sealing as the surface 70 is bare. This will form open endedenvelopes. At 72 there are shown L-shaped extension width sealing orcrimping faces which are clearly wider than those at 22, 24, 26. Herealso the slot 66 is shown as vacant but severing, sealing or slittingknives could be inserted. Diametrically opposite from the members 72there is a member 74 which is a U-shaped extension width sealing orcrimping face, but no knife may be placed in the slot 60 because thelatter is covered. Another arrangement resides in the individual top andbottom sealers 76 spaced to receive a central knife 78 more nearly likethe arrangement shown in Fig. 2 at 56, 58 and 60, but here the knifeblade 78 is retracted so it does not operate, but still the slot isfilled. Of course, it is to be understood that in the usual case eacharm would in all probability be supplied with members the same as thoseon the other arms, but this is not necessarily the case and many timesit will be found that variations are required, for intance in the caseof making open-ended envelopes in pairs wherein the open ends of theenvelopes face each other.

The element 22 is a sealing face with no knife possible; the element 24is a double sealing face with a knife cutout 80 which cutout receivesthe knife, for instance, at 58 on the complementary roller of the rollerpairs and occasions the cutting, slitting, or perforating. The referencenumeral 26 shows substantially the same arrangement as that at 76 but inthis case the knife extends outwardly to an operative cutting relationfor cooperation with a cutout like that at 80 but on the cooperatingmember of the pair.

The different shapes of the members 82, 84, 86 and 88 I are illustrativeonly, that at 82 being similar to that at 44 and that at 88 beingsimilar to that at 46, although the article holding step down portion 90in this case is relatively larger. The shape at 84 is used ascomplementary to a shape as at 82 for holding the article wholly to oneside of a line between the roll pair, and the shape at 86 is used information of containers.

The various shapes 82, 84, 86, 88 are, of course not limited to thoseshown, but may assume any form desired. These shapes do not extend thewidth of the roll or body 10 but have extending wings as at 92containing screws or the like for fastening into the tapped holes 94which holes have been omitted from Fig. 5 for clarity in theillustration.

Reference is hereby made to my co-pending application Serial No.194,659, filed November 8, 1950 (now abandoned) illustratingthe uses towhich the devices of the present nature may be put.

This machine will make at very high speeds any type of container of thetea bag, envelope, or tube type, and the length of any bag is unlimitedas well as the width of any tube which is made in a direction parallelto the axes of the forming rollers. However, of course, these tubes maybe made vertically or horizontally, i. e., transverse to the roll axesor parallel thereto.

The widths of horizontal tubes, the lengths of vertical tubes and bagsis determined by the speed of the machine which in turn depends on thegearing thereof.

Furthermore, this invention provides forming rolls which can conformaround any item or can be formed to the item or can be formed around itand also to it. Thus any size item may be packaged at high speeds, thecubic contents of any package, envelope or tube may be limited exactlyas desired and when the container is formed to and around the item, thebag will have no capacity or cubic content at all except for the itemcovered. Furthermore, the crimping faces may be made in any shapedesired and many irregular shaped containers are, therefore, possible tobe made by this device.

Having thus described my invention and the advantages thereof, I do notwish to be limited to the details herein disclosed otherwise than as setforth in the claim, but what I claim is:

A container making apparatus comprising a cylindrical crimping andshaping tool including an arbor, a cylindrical body thereon for rotationtherewith, a series of elongated longitudinally radial arms on the body,each arm having a face generally in a plane parallel to the arbor axis,a longitudinal replaceable crimping device on each of selected faces,means detachably securing the crimping devices in position, longitudinaldetachable shaped shaping members secured to the body between each pairof arms, the shaping members being shorter than the body axiallythereof, and wings thereon at the ends thereof providing easy attachingdevices to the body of the tool.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,156,466 Vogt May 2, 1939 2,443,327 Salfisberg June 15, 1948 2,472,440Salfisberg June 7, 1949 2,476,057 Mead July 12, 1949 2,546,721 CampbellMar. 27, 1951

